Esme Winterflood

Foundations Program Graduate
Yoga Therapist & Yoga Teacher
Hertford, Hertfordshire, UK
www.EsmeWinterflood.co.uk

Through this program, I have learnt so much about the different aspects of yoga, which has totally enriched my own personal journey. I have also learnt a lot from the Breathing Deeply community with regard to other people’s personal and professional experiences. The ongoing support through Q&A’s is a great help as I start my new career!

I felt I was ready for a career change and then I used the time I had during Covid as an opportunity to spend my time studying and on my own personal practice. I liked that Breathing Deeply was online and self-paced as that suited me.

Using the koshic model has been very interesting personally, as a way to discover and understand my own personal practice since I began training with Breathing Deeply. Like most people, I thought of ‘yoga’ mostly as asana or movement in a class. But now, really it’s a way of life and extends out into everything I do. I would also say that learning more about meditation was particularly valuable for me.

The program met all my expectations. I would say to any potential Breathing Deeply Program student to be patient and open. You may have to ‘unlearn’ some aspects of traditional yoga teacher training. The general community, warmth, and ability to remain part of the community post-graduation are a special part of Breathing Deeply.

I now work the koshic model into my classes and private sessions and the feedback I get is that clients have felt quite deep benefits from this. One client expressed the session as ‘multi-dimensional healing’. I approach sessions as an opportunity to bring mind and body together, which creates a present awareness experience and healing. Now, yoga therapy will be my main offering but specialize in complex trauma. The knowledge I have gained through the program is invaluable to understanding the layers of trauma in the body.

One of my case studies came to me with writer’s block and ‘general despondency’. She had quite a negative view of her physical body and was caught in a cycle of excessiveness and feelings of lacking in self-worth. She was very experienced as a client in many different therapies and could explain how her behaviour related to her childhood experiences and could see the negative patterns clearly. I recommended firstly that she read poetry (in particular Mary Oliver) and this happened to be very well received and seemed to begin to open her up creatively. We included self-worth mantras which she also liked and did frequently. We moved to the outer layers koshically, and created an asana sequence followed by breathwork. She didn’t resonate much with the breathing techniques, but she did enjoy the asanas thoroughly and felt good. We included lots of walking in her weekly goals and this was of great benefit to her. She previously did not have a suitable space to write, so we addressed why this was and looked at how she could make it easy for her. Over the weeks, she began to write and felt more creative and connected to her surroundings. The client reported that she really enjoyed the experience and it was different from any type of therapy she had in that it targeted her concerns in a multi-faceted way.